March 04, 2013

Three lawyers serve as executive producers for film about Michael Morton premiering at SXSW

Monday is a milestone for three lawyers who contributed money and fundraising assistance to a documentary about Michael Morton, who served nearly 25 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife.

When the credits roll, the list of executive producers will include retired attorney Stephen Martin, commercial litigator Beverly Reeves and criminal-defense attorney Kent Schaffer. They say they think it’s important for the public to know Morton’s story and they hope the film gets wide distribution.

“We want every law student in America to see this movie. We want every prosecutor in America to see this movie,” says Reeves (pictured), partner in Reeves & Brightwell in Austin.

She says she worked with the Austin Film Society to set up a nonprofit account so donations would be tax deductible. She reached out to other lawyers for $100 donations when filmmakers needed $10,000 for archival footage.

“Boom, within a day or so, we had the money,” says Reeves.

Schaffer, a criminal-defense lawyer of 32 years, says he also raised funds from other lawyers.

Unless people are aware of Morton’s story, similar things could happen “over and over,” says Schaffer (pictured), partner in Bires Schaffer & DeBorde in Houston.

“What was done to Michael Morton was just an absolute travesty of justice,” he says.

Martin, a retired Houston lawyer, says compared to what Morton went through, it’s easy to write a check. Martin, previously the vice president and general counsel of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., says he tried to see himself in Morton’s situation.

“This is a story that reaches out and grabs you. It could happen to me. It could happen to you. It could happen to anybody,” he says.

Comments

There are 20 million people in Texas. So how about just ONE dollar per person. That is one third of one penny every day for one year. That gives the person falsely imprisioned 20 million dollars. Texas can afford that can't they? Mr. Morton spent 25 years in prison because of bad conduct by the judge and prosecutor.